Contributed by Guest Blogger: Brittany Sider ’11
MicroRNA (miRNA) molecules, first characterized in the early 1990s, have been implicated in a variety of different biological mechanisms. It took almost a decade for researchers to detect and understand the role of miRNAs in regulation of translation. Since then, research has focused on how we can scientifically manipulate these regulating molecules to our advantage in order to further understand biological underpinnings of certain diseases, as well as potential miRNA-based therapies.
The ability of the influenza virus to undergo frequent and substantial genomic mutations forces us to continually monitor its prevalence, and modify yearly vaccines to target the prevailing viral strains. Recently, live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs, e.g. FluMist) have been proven effective, and have been distributed to a large portion of the eligible population to combat the seasonal flu. These vaccines are manipulated to become much more temperature-sensitive, and therefore are only capable of replicating in temperatures found in the nose. The inability of these attenuated viruses to replicate in the respiratory tract (due to higher temperatures) allows the vaccinated individual to produce antibodies to the influenza strains in the vaccine from the infection in the nasal passage. Therefore, the individual can produce the correct immune response without the virus spreading to the respiratory tract and causing symptoms.
In 2009, a group of researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine found that using microRNA response elements (MREs) can supplement the effectiveness of LAIVs. In the study, the MREs for the miR-124 (neural tissue-specific) and miR-93 (a ubiquitous miRNA) were inserted into open reading frames of influenza A nucleoprotein coding regions. The investigators vaccinated mice with miR-93-seeded strains, and then inoculated them with a lethal dose of influenza A/PR/8/34 H1N1 21 days later. This resulted in 100% survival of the subjects, as well as a robust immune response. In an attempt to attribute these results to other influenza strains, the same experiment was done with H5N1 (MREs were inserted into the vaccine specific for H5N1, and methods were repeated). Subjects who had received mock vaccinations 21 days prior to being inoculated with H5N1 displayed rapid weight loss, as well as 100% mortality. On the other hand, mice that had received the MRE-containing H5N1 strain did not display any signs of disease. Furthermore, serum from these subjects exhibited neutralizing activity against the wild-type H5N1, and a wide array of antibody responses (high levels of IgM, IgG1, IgG2a and IgG2b).
The results from this study lead the researchers to believe that MRE-containing LAIVs can be used, and potentially be even more effective than currently available LAIVs in protecting against influenza A outbreaks. In addition, this technology provides the potential to control for the degree of attenuation of the vaccine by manipulating the number of MREs/miRNAs. Lastly, FluMist – although proven to be equally as effective as injected vaccines – has some age exclusions. Perhaps the addition of MREs/miRNAs could expand the target demographic of this method of vaccination.
